Living with Energy. For a sensible anthropology of energy consumption ; Habiter avec l'énergie. Pour une anthropologie sensible de la consommation d'énergie

Abstract

Domestic practices related to energy consumption is not a common object of contemporary social sciences even though they have become a global issue, as a consequence of the scarcity and the rising cost of fossil fuels. This research proposes, using social sciences tools, to study energy consumption through social practices within the domestic space. It is also to identify practices that could be consistent with global and current concerns of conserving energy. This work tries to design these social practices as domestic practices that cannot be isolated from each other at the risk of rendering them meaningless. Research on first humans and fire domestication elaborate humans compared to animals, their forms of settlement, the relation that they maintain with the environment and its symbolic value. Construction practices, cooking, heating and lighting are all cultural productions that involve energy consumption and tell us about the relationship that Man has with his surrounding. Studying practices has also to be based on technical objects. Here, the process of technical spread is a contemporary data that had to be taken into account: times are no longer to make up effective tools, but to accumulate devices that operate independently. We conclude with the concept of "energy intelligence" as a behavioral data, apart from current political and media speeches. Understand ones living space, understand the organization of family life and its necessary adjustments are observation points that emphasize the need to consider the place of the body, as part of a mesological whole, within the approach of contemporary energy issues. ; Les pratiques domestiques liées à la consommation d'énergie ne sont pas un objet courant des sciences sociales contemporaines alors même qu'elles deviennent un enjeu mondial ; conséquence de la raréfaction et du renchérissement des ressources fossiles. La présente recherche propose, avec les outils des sciences sociales, de saisir la consommation d'énergie à travers l'étude des pratiques ...